As soon as he came back from his one-month trip abroad, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
They harped on the same old tune of combining their two parties.
This shows that Soong simply doesn't get it and that his way of thinking is obsolete.
Though the two party leaders met and decided to work together for the presidential election only a year and five months ago, the circumstances now are different.
Lien is no longer as powerful as he was; neither is the PFP.
Back then, Lien possessed such enormous power and financial resources that no one could challenge him, and the PFP had not yet begun to decline.
Thus as soon as Lien and Soong held their private talk, a merger between the two parties should have been a done deal.
At that time, the leadership in the pan-blue alliance was invincible.
Now, Lien is nothing more than a rubber stamp.
Though he kept his post as KMT chairman after he lost the presidential election, he will have to step down following the legislative election at the end of this year.
In the meantime, the PFP has lost momentum because of the sliding popularity of Soong.
Therefore, Lien and Soong were indulging in self-delusion by holding a private meeting again, since they are no longer in a position to make any policies or merger deals.
Even if they did, these policies and deals would likely be ineffective.
KMT Vice Chairman Wang Jin-pyng (
In Wang's view, there is no point in even talking about a merger, let alone forming one.
Wang's comment made Lien's rubber-stamp status obvious. Lien doesn't even have a say in his party. If Soong didn't know this, then he was simply incapable of assessing the situation.
He probably thought that nothing had changed over the past year and that he could still control the KMT by allying with Lien. That's how outmoded his thinking is.
The most powerful figure in the KMT now appears to be Wang. Not daring to challenge him, Lien goes along with what he says.
During a visit to former president Lee Teng-hui (
Obviously, he said this to please Lee.
In an interview with a Hong Kong radio station, Lien didn't criticize Wang at all; on the contrary, he played up to him by saying that "in Wang's view, the KMT has to get as much support as it can."
And when he says "support" he's referring to former president Lee.
But since Lien already publicly denounced Lee and cut all ties with him, why did he suddenly welcome Lee's support?
Even though far away on a visit to New York, Wang made comments to express his gratitude to Lee.
Though he likely did not intend to embarrass Lien, clearly in his eyes the former chairman far overshadows the current one.
Now Soong can only bluff Lien. Lien lost his power and Soong is at his wit's end.
The sad thing is that these two out-of-date figures still do not understand and appreciate political reality.
They are not as smart and calculating as we once thought.
Chin Heng-wei is editor-in-chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine.
Translated by Jennie Shih
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
RSS